With regard to issues of health and safety at work and irrespective of the activities of the enterprise where they are employed, workers have the general obligations laid down in Article 13 of Framework Directive 89/391/EEC, transposed into Greek law by virtue of Presidential Decree 17/1996 and codified by virtue of Law 3850/2010 .

More specifically, workers are obligated, in accordance with their training and the instructions given by their employer, to comply with the following general principles:

• Apply health and safety rules and take care as far as possible of their own safety and health and that of other persons affected by their acts or omissions at work.
• make correct use of machinery, tools, dangerous substances, transport equipment and other means of production;
• make correct use of the personal protective equipment supplied to them by their employers and, after use, return it to its proper place;
• refrain from disconnecting, changing or removing arbitrarily safety devices fitted, e.g. to machinery, apparatus, tools, plant and buildings, and use such safety devices correctly;
• immediately inform their employer of any hazardous situation that represents a danger to safety and health and of any shortcomings in the protection arrangements;
• immediately inform their employer, the safety technician and the occupational physician of any situation that could be considered to represent a serious and immediate danger to safety and health and of any shortcomings in the safety arrangements;
• cooperate with their employer, the safety technician and the occupational physician to a) enable any tasks or requirements imposed by the Labour Inspectorate to protect the safety and health of workers to be carried out; b) enable the employer to ensure that the working environment and working conditions are safe and pose no risk to safety and health within their field of activity;
• to attend seminars or other training programmes on worker health and safety issues.

Specific worker obligations, always in the spirit of the aforementioned general principles, are also laid down in other provisions of national legislation concerning specific activities – such as building and technical works (Presidential Decree 1073/1981 – Article 114), underground technical works (Presidential Decree 225/1989  – Article 3) and ship repair works (Presidential Decree 70/1990  – Article 10).

For further information, contact the Audit Planning and Coordination Department of the Inspectorate of Health and Safety at Work or the Health and Safety at Work Inspection Departments  of the Regional Directorates of Labour Inspectorate.